


Finding Justice

by Sharon6714



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Gen, Non-graphic depictions of violence, Non-hunter au, ghost au, ghost!stiles, made up Kitsune lore, most characters are young children, murder solving, nice!Victoria
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-28
Updated: 2018-01-11
Packaged: 2018-10-11 22:31:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10475913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sharon6714/pseuds/Sharon6714
Summary: Stiles, a ghost, is left roaming an empty house after his mother died and his father moved out. Thankfully it isn't too long before the Argents move in and he quickly becomes friends with their young daughter Allison. To his surprise, he also befriends Victoria too, and the two of them end up working together to solve a crime.Based loosely off the prompt for a movie called Buried Secrets (1996): A woman is visited by the ghost of a child who begs her to find their mother's killer





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first multi-chaptered fic so please keep that in mind when reading, I know it won't be perfect.

*Argent House*

Victoria sighed, unpacking the last box.

Chris came in, setting a box in the corner. "Are you hungry?"

"Yeah, is there anything you have in mind for dinner?"

"Since we haven't unpacked the kitchen yet, I was thinking take-out."

"What about Chinese? Donny said the place downtown is good."

Chris nodded, "Chinese is fine then and I know we haven't had it in a while. I can place the order after finding out what Allison wants."

Victoria nodded, relieved she didn't have to cook anything after all the unpacking she'd done. "I'll go check on her, make sure she's done unpacking." Victoria walked upstairs to Allison's room, stopping in the doorway when she saw toys spread out around her on the floor. "It looks like you're playing more than you're unpacking."

Allison looked up then around the room. "Um... no?" Allison smiled.

"Dad's going to order Chinese for dinner."

Allison's face lit up, "I want Mongolian Beef please!" She picked up a shirt as she said this, putting it away in her dresser.

Victoria scanned the room, noticing that most of Allison's stuff had been unpacked. "I think we should get one of the pastries from Diane's Bakery as well."

"Yay! Thank you!" Allison ran over, hugging Victoria around the middle.

Victoria patted her back and told her that her toys needed to be picked up when Chris got back with their supper.

Allison continued unpacking, her mind starting to wander. Would she like her new school, would she make any friends? Before her mind could wander too far, one of the boxes fell. Allison spun around quickly, eyeing the box on the floor, "How did you fall?" As she turned the box upright again, another box fell from behind her. "H-hello, is someone there?" All of a sudden, a boy was standing there!

"Sorry, I didn't mean to bother you..." Stiles felt bad now, he didn't mean to scare her!

"How'd you knock the boxes over? I thought ghosts couldn't touch anything..."

Stiles was surprised she was okay with him being a ghost. Most people wouldn't assume 'ghost' even after seeing him materialize like that."Well, normally I can't... but if I concentrate hard enough I can."

Allison nodded, still eyeing the boy. "I'm Allison, what's your name?"

"I'm Stiles."

Allison smiled, she already made a friend! Forgetting about the box she was unpacking, Allison sat on her bed facing Stiles.

"So... is it just you and your parents or do you have brothers or sisters too?" Stiles chewed on his lip, nervous about meeting other kids.

"No, it's just us, I don't have any brothers or sisters."

He nodded, still unsure of how Allison felt about him being a ghost. "You're okay with me being a ghost?"

"Yeah, you seem like you're nice."

Stiles looked around, shuffling his feet. "This house has been empty for a really long time... I'm not sure how much time has passed though..."

"Did you like being here alone?" Allison was feeling guilty now about intruding. She chewed on her lip- what if he didn't want them here?

"Not at all! I never had anyone to talk to, it's just that not many people like living with a ghost.."

"You aren't a mean ghost, right?"

"No, I'm not mean, most people are still scared of me though."

"Well, I don't mind, now I have someone to play with!" Allison smiled- she had someone new to play with!

"I'm sorry for scaring you, I'm still getting used to touching 'real' things."

"So you can only touch stuff sometimes?"

"Yeah, I have to really concentrate. I'm not falling through the floor because that's easier, it only looks like I'm touching the floor,” Stiles shrugged; he didn’t really understand everything about being a ghost.

"That's so cool! Maybe tomorrow we can go play outside!"

Stiles' face fell, "I can't leave the house..."

"How come?"

"Part of being a ghost I guess... the house is where I'm tied to, so I can't leave. A while back I tried and I just got pulled back in." Stiles was sad, he was sure Allison would like to play outside more than inside but he couldn’t go outside…

"Oh... but we can still play inside, right?"

"Yeah! But um, I think I'm distracting you..." He didn't mean to distract her, he just got excited at someone living here again! "You're supposed to be putting your toys away, right?"

"I'm supposed to have them put away before dinner."

"Well when is dinner?"

"I think in a little while, I heard Dad leave a little bit ago."

"Well the Chinese place isn't far and it's only take-out so you should start cleaning." Stiles bent down and tried to pick up a toy. He shook his head as his hand passed through the toy- earlier he was running into stuff on accident and now that he was trying he couldn't touch the toy??

"You know where the Chinese place is?"

"I know where one is that's really good. Unless they moved or built a new one since I... died..."

"Oh..." Just then she heard her dad come inside- dinner time! She turned to Stiles, "Did you wanna have dinner with us?"

"I uh... sure, what can it hurt?" he said, smiling.

"Yay!" Allison quickly finished picking up her toys and went downstairs.

Stiles 'walked' downstairs after Allison. He was nervous, would her parents even be able to see him? What about hear him? Did Allison usually invite 'friends' over for dinner? This was the first time he'd been invited to a dinner since his death, how exciting!

Allison hurried to the kitchen, "Can Stiles have dinner with us?"

Victoria turned around, "You didn't leave the house right?" There was no one in the house with that name, did that mean Allison went outside and met someone?

"No, this is Stiles," she said, pointing to her new friend.

Victoria looked to where her daughter was pointing and frowned for a moment. It dawned on her and she smiled politely, "Hello Stiles."

Stiles waved to her but knew she couldn't see him, she wasn't looking at his eyes.

"So can he have dinner with us?"

"Sure he can. What would you and Stiles like to drink?"

"I want juice please!" Allison turned to Stiles, asking him if he wanted anything to drink. "Stiles says he doesn't want anything to drink."

"Alright, go ahead and add a place setting for Stiles. We're only using paper plates and I'll get you some juice."

Stiles nervously walked to the table.

Allison paused before setting Stiles' plate down, "What's wrong?"

"I don't think I can move the chair to sit down..." Stiles' hand passed through the chair as he reached for it.

"Oh!" Allison pulled the chair out for Stiles, "There ya go."

"Thank you," Stiles said as he 'sat.'

She settled into her own seat, thanking her mom when she brought out her juice.

Chris brought food to the table, noticing the extra place setting as he put the food containers down. He looked at Victoria, confused.

"We have a 'friend' joining us, Allison invited Stiles."

Stiles waved once more, even though he couldn't see him either. It was polite.

"It's nice that you're joining us for dinner Stiles," Chris said before sitting down.

As Victoria plated the food, Stiles watched eagerly. He sighed, "That all looks really good."

"Did you want some?"

He shook his head, "I'm a ghost, I can't eat. I'll just sit and enjoy your company."

Allison grinned in understanding before she started eating.

"Your parents seem nice," Stiles commented after a moment.

Before Allison could ask what he meant, Victoria asked, "Did Stiles want some?"

"No, he doesn't want any, I asked."

"Alright," Victoria sat down and started eating now that everyone had been served.

"Did you finish unpacking Alli?" her dad asked.

"Um, mostly... I picked up my toys though!"

"That's a good start. Are you excited about school tomorrow?"

"Kinda..." Allison looked down at her lap, mumbling her answer.

"Only kinda? Are you nervous too?"

"Yeah... what if I don't make friends?"

"You'll make friends, you always do," Chris smiled, reassuring her.

Stiles perked up at the topic of school. "What school are you going to? I used to babysit some kids, maybe I'll know the school - I could give you some pointers." He gave Allison a big smile of encouragement.

"What school am I going to?" she asked her mom, not knowing the answer.

"Um, Beacon Hills Elementary right?"

Chris nodded, "Right, it's only a few minutes away."

"Alright!" Stiles exclaimed. "I know a few of the kids going there. Do you know your teacher by chance?"

"No, I don't... Mom, what teacher do I have?"

"Mr. Hill, why?" Victoria tilted her head, not expecting her daughter to ask these questions.

"Stiles says he knows kids that go there."

"Really? Like who?" Victoria asked while looking towards the empty chair.

Stiles was still smiling, "Oh good! Scott has Mr. Hill, he's a great kid, you'll get along with him! Mr. Hill is good too!"

"He said Scott has Mr. Hill."

"Well, see there ya go, you can uh, meet Scott tomorrow and be friends with him," Chris told her. He hoped that Scott wouldn't be an invisible friend too.

"Does Stiles know Mr. Hill? He's not a bad teacher, right?"

"Yeah, Stiles told me he's a good teacher." She turned back to Stiles, eager now, "Do you know any other kids?"

"Well at least he's a good teacher," Victoria mumbled to Chris as their daughter continued to talk to her new 'friend'.

"There's this little girl named Lydia um... Kira said she was 'interesting' , whatever that means. Danny is a really sweet kid too. This kid Jackson is a total brat though! He's mean to Scott but he's older."

"Do you think they'd wanna be my friends?"

"Scott would love you, he's the best kid ever, always ready to make friends," Stiles said, wanting to reassure her.

Allison relaxed more after hearing Stiles tell her about some kids she might get along with. She hurried to eat dinner, wanting to talk with Stiles some more.

*Later*

Allison was back in her room with Stiles and was sitting on her bed so they could talk more- Allison was excited to learn more about her new friend! "How old are you?" Allison asked.

"Do you mean in ghost years or... when I died?"

"When you died..."

"I'm 14," Stiles said, looking down. It bothered him that he wasn't going to ever age now. He was stuck at 14 forever!

"Were you murdered???" Allison asked, intrigued. She didn't know many people that died young.

"No, I wasn't murdered. I had leukemia- a kind of cancer. It um... spread really fast." Stiles wasn't sure if ghosts could cry so he stopped talking, not wanting to find out.

Allison frowned, "Oh, I'm sorry..." Her parents had said bad things about cancer, so that must've been awful for him. She went quiet, feeling bad about asking now.

"Where'd you live before?" he asked to fill the silence, and to change the topic. Stiles was curious, he wanted to know more about her.

"I lived in San Francisco," Allison smiled, she loved talking about San Francisco! "Right in the middle with all the hills! And we could see the bridge, it was great!"

"That's awesome!"

She nodded in agreement. "What's your favorite color? Mine's purple!"

"I like blue and green." Stiles looked down at this, remembering his parents. He didn't have any favorite colors before he died, it just wasn't his thing. But his parents did- each year they got each other color-coded gifts. Stiles would never forget that.

"What about animal? I like rabbits." She asked, pressing forward, not noticing the look on his face.

"I like foxes."

They sat like this until bedtime, just asking each other simple questions to get to know each other.

*Next Day*

"Allison, sweety, time to get up," Victoria announced.

"Kay..." Allison sat up sleepily.

"Cereal and toast for breakfast?"

She nodded her head, "Yes please."

"If you get up on time, I'll even put jam on it," Victoria told her with a smile before going back down to the kitchen. She got out Allison's favorite cereal and popped bread in the toaster.

Stiles was standing in the hallway trying to pick up a piece of mail from the basket. He started to lift it but then it fell through his hand and onto the floor.

From the kitchen, Victoria heard the envelope hit the floor, "What was that?"

He tried to pick up the envelope, feeling stupid for dropping something as light as an envelope.

Just then, Allison came down the stairs and invited Stiles to sit at the table for breakfast.

Stiles forgot about the envelope and went to sit next to Allison, excited for her first day of school.

Victoria went and picked up the envelope. "Why did you fall...?" she mumbled to herself.

Stiles sat at the table, excited for Allison to meet Scott. Allison finished her cereal and toast, taking her dishes to the kitchen then grabbing her backpack. Then she was out the door and climbing into the car.

*School*

Allison climbed out of the car, waving to her mom and taking a deep breath before heading to the office. After telling the secretary her name, an older girl with a bright green belt that said 'Safety Patrol' led her to class. After meeting Mr. Hill, he told her to take a seat at a table with 2 boys and 1 girl.

"Welcome to table 4!" one of the boys said to her.

"Hi..."

"My name is Scott, that's Sarah and that's Sean," he told her, pointing to the other kids.

"My name is Allison..."

"Well, welcome to Beacon Hills Elementary." Scott gave her a bright smile.

They worked for a little while, Allison getting to know her table mates more.

Later the teacher excused the kids from class and Scott ran towards the swings as soon as he was outside.

Allison sat by herself, not sure who would want to play with her. She sat there for a few minutes and then a girl came over to her.

"Hello, my name is Lydia, are you new?"

"Yeah, today's my first day, I'm Allison."

"I love your dress!"

"Thanks, my mom got it for me." Allison smiled, happy that Lydia said she liked her dress.

"It suits you." Lydia looked the new girl over for a moment. "Since you're new here, that means you don't have any friends, you can come hang out with me then."

"I met Scott, he seems nice," she replied, pointing to Scott on the swings.

Lydia looked and saw Scott, "Scott's nice but...." She shrugged, then turned to smile at Allison again, "Wanna come see what books I've got?"

"Sure!"

Lydia led Allison over to her backpack to show her the books. "Do you like fantasy books better or sci-fi?"

"I like fantasy."

"Those are good. I read both of course. Have you read this one?" Lydia asked as she handed Allison a book.

"No, but I've been wanting to! I asked my mom for it for my birthday."

"You can borrow mine for now, if you promise to take care of it."

"Really? I promise!" She was excited, she made a friend! And Lydia even let her borrow one of her books too.

*After School*

Allison was sitting at a table waiting for Scott. The same girl that led her to class this morning brought her here. She was nervous, but the lady in charge assured her she could play with the other kids while she waited to be picked up.

Moments later, Scott walked in, a boy following him.

"Where's your new friend? Am I gonna meet him?" the boy, Isaac, asked. He had come to school late and didn’t realize there was a new person at Scott’s table.

"Allison is a girl silly," Scott answered with a smile. He couldn't wait for the two of them to meet! "Yeah, she's s'posed to be here somewhere..."

"Oh, okay..."

Just then, Jackson ran by, knocking Isaac over. "Jeez, outta my way!"

Scott hurried to Isaac's side, checking on his friend before glaring at the other boy, "Jackson that's rude! Say sorry."

Jackson turned around, "Are you telling me what to do Shrimpy?"

The commotion attracted Allison's attention and she saw Scott with a smaller boy; there was an older boy being mean to them. She hurried over, "Hey! stop being mean to them!"

"Who are you, his girlfriend?"

"No, I'm his friend and you need to stop being mean to them!"

Isaac hid behind Scott as the girl stood up to Jackson.

Jackson scoffed, "You're new here, you just don't understand how things work." Before he could say anything else, he saw Lydia waving to him. "I gotta go, stay outta my way Shrimpy!"

Allison turned towards the boys, "Are you and your friend okay?"

Scott frowned as Jackson walked away before helping Isaac to his feet. "I'm okay, are you Isaac?"

Isaac nodded, still sniffling. "I hate Jackson..."

"Don't worry about him," Scott told his friend.The he turned to Allison, "Thanks for saying something but... now Jackson is going to be mad at you too..."

"So? He was being mean to you and your friend. I care about my friends, I'm not just gonna watch them get bullied!" She looked at the boy hiding behind Scott, curious. He was the one that had walked in late.

Scott noticed and remembered to say something, "Isaac, this is Allison, she's in my class. Say hi."

He mumbled in a quiet voice, "Hi..." I'm Isaac..."

"Hi Isaac, I'm Allison. Did you want to sit with me and Scott?"

Isaac nodded and followed Scott to her table, staying close to his friend.

As they sat down, a boy named Danny came over, "Hi, sorry about Jackson, he isn't always mean."

"He should apologize to Scott and Isaac," Allison told him.

"I'll talk to him, but I'm sorry he was mean to you guys."

Allison, Isaac and Scott hung out and played games. When Victoria showed up for Allison, Isaac had warmed up to her and was sad to see her go.

"Don't worry Isaac, Allison will be back tomorrow."

Isaac's face lit up, "Okay! Bye Allison!"

Allison waved to her new friends before following her mom to the car.

*At Home*

Allison ran up to her room, excited to see Stiles. "I met Scott today and you were right! He's super nice! I met Isaac and Lydia too!" Allison frowned as she remembered the last part of the day, "I also met a mean boy named Jackson too..."

"I told you that you'd get along great with Scott! I heard that Isaac and Lydia are good kids too. Jackson is a brat though, you don't want to be friends with him."

Downstairs, Victoria and Chris were talking, "I think this is a good neighborhood, there are other families that have kids so Allison can make friends."

Chris nodded, "I have a longer commute to work, but it's fairly close to the school. I don't mind the drive, as long as it's easier on you so you don't have to drive so far."

"We're a few blocks away, so hopefully traffic won't be too bad in the afternoons."

Meanwhile Allison was doing homework and talking to Stiles, which her father heard. "Should we be concerned? Allison's been talking to herself..."

"She's probably talking to Stiles, I'm sure she's fine."

"About that... she's never brought invisible friends to dinner before."

"What's that mean?"

"Well... someone died in this house Victoria..."

Victoria gave him a look. "And you think Allison's new friend is the person who died here?"

Chris shrugged, "I know she's had imaginary friends before, but this is the first time she's invited one to dinner." Chris was worried, Allison had been acting differently ever since she met 'Stiles'. Although Chris had the thought that Allison's new friend could be the person who had died there, he decided to trust his wife when she said Stiles was just an imaginary friend.


	2. Chapter 2

*Thursday Morning*

Chris looked at the time, "Allison coming down soon? Her cereal is getting soggy.”

"She should...." Victoria said and went upstairs. "Allison? Are you almost ready?"

Allison blinked in surprise, shirt halfway on, "Yeah, just getting dressed."

"Alright, hurry up, your cereal is getting soggy," Victoria said as she walked back downstairs.

Allison hurried to get dressed. "Oh, okay! C'mon Stiles, we can finish talking at the table."

Stiles followed Allison downstairs, more comfortable than he was the previous night.

Allison sat at the table, making sure to pull the chair beside her out for Stiles, "So, Jackson's been bothering Scott this whole time? Doesn't he have anything better to do?"

Victoria was packing Allison's lunch while Chris sat at the table eating breakfast. Chris watched Allison talk to Stiles from the corner of his eye.

Stiles shook his head, "No. He loves being in charge; he thinks he can be mean to kids that are younger than him."

"Well I stood up to him yesterday, so hopefully he knows that Scott isn't his to pick on no more!" Allison stated as she began eating breakfast.

"Good! I'm glad you stood up to him." Stiles was proud of Allison for standing up to a bully!

Allison smiled as she ate, appreciating his praise.

"Who's Jackson?" Chris asked. He had heard of ‘Scott’, was Jackson another ‘friend’ like ‘Stiles’ too?

Stiles, forgetting that Chris couldn’t hear him, answered, "A kid at school, he's a brat. I don't like him."

Allison nodded, agreeing with Stiles.

Chris frowned, "What's the nod mean?"

Allison looked at Stiles, confused for a moment. "Oh, right... um, Jackson is an older boy at school, he's a brat!"

Victoria came from the kitchen with Allison’s lunchbox, "Allison..." she said sternly.

Allison paused mid-bite, "Sorry..."

"Is that what 'Stiles' said?" Chris raised a brow, confused on why Allison would use a word when she knew it was bad.

Allison’s eyes widened, "It's true though, Jackson isn't nice, Isaac is really scared of him- Daddy you should've seen Isaac's face!"

"You don't call someone a brat though, you know that" Victoria reminded Allison.

Allison nodded and finished her cereal, "Sorry..."

Chris put Allison's lunch in her backpack as Victoria grabbed the car keys.

"Ready to go?" her mom asked.

Allison nodded as she put her bowl in the dishwasher, "Bye Stiles, I'll see you when I get home!"

Stiles waved, "Bye, have a good day at school!"

Chris was surprised that ‘Stiles’ isn't going to school with her. Wouldn’t ‘Stiles’ go with her so she wouldn’t be lonely? Something wasn’t right…

Bored now that his new friend was gone, Stiles went to the hallway, trying to pick up the mail again. Moments passed before he finally got a solid grip on the paper and was able to lift it in the air. He was able to hold it for a few seconds before it slipped through his fingers. Stiles still threw his arms up in celebration, accidentally knocking a picture off the wall.

Chris had been in the kitchen, cleaning up his dishes from breakfast. When he heard the noise he spun around, “Who’s there?”

“Oh c’mon, I can knock stuff over on accident but not when I’m trying?!” Stiles grumbled before reaching for the fallen frame. He prayed that his powers wouldn’t give out on him now, not when it was important. His fingers were able to grab it and he quickly hung it back on the wall before he lost his grip.

"I know someone is here," Chris called out as he walked into the hallway, holding out a kitchen knife.

"It's okay, it was just me, Stiles." It was a good thing he was already dead, it would suck to get stabbed on accident. Not that Chris could see him anyways.

Slowly Chris moved from the kitchen, through the hallway and into the living room. No sign of any intruder… but he had heard something. When he went back into the hallway though, there was no sign of a fallen picture.

Victoria opened the front door suddenly, surprising her husband. She saw the knife, "Everything okay? Why are you holding a knife?"

He lowered the knife as he looked around again. "It sounded like a picture fell… which means someone knocked one off. But there aren't any frames on the floor which means someone knocked it down but also picked it up and put it back…"

"You would have heard someone come into the house though," she assured him. It was like yesterday when she found the envelope on the floor, random.

"You'd think..." he mumbled with a shake of his head. Then he looked at his wife, "Allison get off to school okay?"

"Yeah, she met up with Scott and Isaac then they went to the playground."

"So Scott is a real friend? Good."

"Yes, Scott is real," Victoria said with a roll of her eyes. She followed him into the kitchen as he put the knife away. Why was he so suspicious of invisible friends all of a sudden?

Chris leaned against the counter and crossed his arms. "Are we still so sure that Stiles is safe?” he asked, almost like he could read her mind. “You heard what Allison said at breakfast."

"She was telling us about a mean boy at school."

"And she knows that she can't say things like that about people regardless. She can say he's mean, or a bully, but she's never called someone a brat before, not since we told her not to."

Victoria sighed, "That doesn't mean Stiles isn't safe, I'm sure it was an accident."

Stiles, who had been eavesdropping, smiled at her, "Thank you! I didn't know ‘brat’ was a bad word, that's all!"

"I just don't know if... if this imaginary friend is so... 'imaginary', you know?"

"What do you mean?"

"What we talked about last night. How do we know that Stiles isn't the one who died here, what if they are going to hurt her?"

"Even if Stiles is the one who died here, I don't think he'll hurt Allison." Victoria was surprised at his suggestion.

Stiles frowned and shook his head, "No... that wasn't... I mean, yes I am a ghost but I didn't die here..." He looked down at his shoes, quietly adding, "That was my mom."

Chris continued to push his point, "How do we know that? Imaginary friends don't knock pictures off the wall."

"I just know that Stiles won't hurt Allison." She didn’t know much about ghosts or the supernatural, but nothing in the house gave her a bad feeling.

"I'm worried about her,” he said with a sigh, looking around. “At first I thought... she was worried about making friends so she made up another imaginary friend but... did you hear what she said before leaving?"

Victoria nodded, "She said goodbye to Stiles."

"If he was a normal 'imaginary friend' wouldn't he go to school with her? Why did he stay here?"

"Because I'm a ghost and if you could see me, you'd know that..." Stiles grumbled, getting a little frustrated with the conversation. Chris had jumped from the idea of imaginary friend straight to dangerous ghost. "I'm not going to hurt her... I'm a nice ghost!"

Victoria processed what he was saying. "That's true…" All of the other imaginary friends Allison had had, they always ‘went’ with her everywhere.

"Yeah... that's odd. I have no idea if ghosts are real but... isn’t that a thing that ghosts can't leave the house they died in or something?"

Stiles smiled to himself ruefully, "The rules are a little different than that but, yeah, close enough."

"Okay, so say Stiles is a ghost, what do you want to do?" Victoria asked.

"I have no idea, that's the problem,” he admitted. “All we can do is keep an eye on Allison, make sure it doesn't seem like anything weird is happening. Maybe we can ask someone to look into the history of the house."

Stiles felt a sliver of fear. "Please don't get rid of me, I can't go... not until I find out about my mom!" They couldn’t get rid of him, not yet! He had to find the thing that killed his mom!

"Let’s gather some more information before we do anything drastic… I don’t want scammers coming to ‘cleanse’ the house and taking our money. We don’t even know if it’s a ghost, or a bad ghost at that.”

Stiles sighed in relief, not every ghost hunter was a fake and he didn’t want to get ‘banished’ or be forced to move on before he was ready. Thankfully Chris seemed to agree, so Stiles still had time.

"Yeah, if we find out more about who died, and how, maybe we can get a handle on this ‘Stiles’ character. I mean, I doubt ‘Stiles’ is a real name so it's not like we can just look into that."

"You'd love my first name! I don't think Allison could even pronounce it. I know I couldn’t when I was her age,” he laughed to himself.

“We do research first and then take action if necessary.” Victoria hugged her husband, "Trust me though, I really don't believe Stiles will hurt Allison."

"I hope you're right, I don't want our daughter to get hurt because we weren't cautious enough. We decided that it was fine to move in here despite the history of the house."

"I'm not the one you have to worry about... that thing is!" Stiles wished they could see him, or at least hear him… they were seriously worried about the wrong thing!

Victoria smiled and rubbed his shoulder, changing the topic. "You should get ready for work. I can ask around later when I go out."

Chris looked at the time, "Yeah, don't want to be late." As he hurried upstairs he called out, "Tell me what you find!"

Victoria went into the mostly unpacked office, needing to get started on her own work. She turned on the computer and sat down, getting ready to sort through her list of clients. There were quite a few outfits that she needed to create today to stay ahead of her quota.

Stiles followed her, attempting to knock on the door. He didn’t feel right just intruding, he could see that she was working. But his hand went through the door and he sighed, just walking in after all. He watched her work for a moment before gathering some courage. "Please see me... I'll tell you everything, if you want to hear it... It means a lot that you trust me- I swear I'm a nice ghost, I won't hurt any of you." There was no reaction at all, she just continued to work. Before he could try anything else, the phone rang.

"We've only been here a day, who'd be calling the house?" she asked aloud before answering. "Hello, Argent residence."

"Hello Mrs. Argent, this is Sheriff Stilinski, I was just calling to see how you and your family were settling in."

"Is there a problem? It's unusual for someone as big as the Sheriff to be calling..." she asked, tensing up.

"Dad!" Stiles called out, perking up instantly.

"There’s no problem, I just wanted to check in. After all, it is my old house."

"Oh, OH, I'm sorry,” Victoria sighed with relief, “I completely forgot that it was your name on the paperwork, I heard ‘Sheriff’ and got worried. Everything is fine so far..."

"That's good. Feel free to give me a call if there are any problems with the house."

She smiled to herself, realizing that he was obviously attached to the house. "That's kind of-" she was interrupted by the phone cutting out.

Stiles, who had leaned over to try and listen in, swore to himself, "Crap..."

"Hello?" John’s voice came through, garbled.

"My bad!" Stiles shouted, stepping away from the phone. It had been so long since he’d been around active electronics, he’d forgotten.

Victoria looked at the phone confused, "These are new batteries, why did you just die like that?"

"Mrs. Argent, are you still there?"

"Hello? I can hear you again."

"Stupid ghost interference... I wanna be able to listen,” Stiles mumbled to himself.

"Oh, good, I was afraid the call had been dropped."

"Yeah, some sort of... something happened there. I think it’s better now. Anyways, like I was saying, it's kind of you to check in, we promise to take good care of the house."

"Alright. Do you have any questions about the house?"

She had the sense that he knew what kind of question she’d ask. Victoria wasn’t sure it was her place but asked before she could change her mind. "Can... can I ask about... the death in the house? At first my husband and I didn't want details but... we've been talking about it and then you called..."

Stiles shook his head and frowned "No... no don't ask him about Mom! Please take it back..."

"It was my wife,” he admitted, his voice breaking.

"Oh, oh I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to upset you, I didn't think... of course it was someone close to you."

The teenager started to chew on his lip, "Dad... it's okay Dad, I'm working on it- I promise!"

"That's alright, you didn't know and it's only fair to tell you."

"Thank you. It was nice of you to check in, I won't take up any more of your time."

"You have a good day Mrs. Argent."

"You too Sheriff."

"You didn't have to ask him about it you know... if you were a little more open-minded you could see me and then you'd have your answers..." Stiles was miffed that she had pried. Thankfully she had let the subject drop, his dad was still healing from her death. It was rude of her to bring it up like that!

Suddenly Victoria broke out in goosebumps as the temperature dropped around her. She looked around and frowned.

Stiles noticed and frowned as well. Did he make the temperature change? He’d never seen the temperature change like that, but then again, he was a ghost. He stepped back, wondering if that would help- he hadn’t meant to make it colder. That definitely seemed like something a bad ghost would do.

Victoria shook her head and put on the sweater that was hanging on the back of the chair. Then she continued to put together a few outfits for her first client of the day. She’d only gotten 2 done when Chris poked his head into the office.

“Alright I’m hea- why is it so cold in here?” He walked further into the room, looking up at the air vent.

“I’m not sure… I was talking to the sheriff then the temperature just dropped.”

Chris turned to look at her, surprised, “The sheriff?”

“Yes, he’s the previous owner of the house, he just wanted to check in, make sure we were settling in alright.”

“Oh, right. Does he expect things to not be alright?” He frowned, “Do you think he knows about the ghost?”

“Dad just cares! He’s a nice guy!” Stiles cried out.

“He was just checking in with us, he wanted to make sure everything was alright. I also asked him about the death in the house…”

“Good thinking, what’d he say?”

Stiles grumbled and stepped closer to Chris, “Stop butting in- don’t you go asking him any questions later!”

Victoria pulled her sweater closer, “He said it was his wife…”

“His wife? I’m guessing you didn’t ask what happened… I’m sure just admitting it was hard on him. Seriously, what’s with the cold?” Chris had started to rub his arms, really feeling chilled suddenly.

“Of course I didn’t ask for details!”

“I’m mad and worried, that’s what’s with the cold! Dad doesn’t need sad memories…” Stiles yelled. Then he took a deep breath and moved away from the man, trying to calm down.

“It’s okay, I wouldn’t have asked him for details either, I was thinking aloud… but we have a name now, we know for sure who to look for.”

“Stiles doesn’t seem like a woman’s name though… even if it is just a nickname.”

He thought about that for a moment, “You’re right, I can’t imagine a woman’s name that would have Stiles as a nickname.”

Stiles snorted suddenly, “You’re in for a hard search then… my nickname comes from my last name so…”

“You have to get to work, I’ll look into this more later.”

Chris glanced at his watch, “Damn… are you sure? I know you have work to do too. And the internet doesn’t close, I can look up stuff when I get home tonight.”

“You… you really want to know more about all this?” Stiles looked between the two of them, unsure of how to feel.

“I’m sure. I don’t have too many orders, I can look into this at the same time.”

“Okay, let me know what you find. And remind me to check on that vent when I get home… it’s literally only this room.” He walked out into the hallway, “Not cold out here… Anyways, I’ll see you tonight, love you.”

“Love you too.”

*School*

Allison flipped to a new section in her notebook as the class changed subjects. She sighed to herself.

Scott noticed, “You okay?”

“Social studies isn’t my favorite subject… at my last school… the teacher didn’t explain it well and I did real bad on the homework…”

“I help Isaac with his work, you can work with us if you want,” Scott offered.

“You like Social Studies?”

“Yeah, it’s my favorite!” he said with a smile.

Allison smiled in return, “Awesome… wait… I don’t wanna be a mooch… maybe I can help you with reading if you need it?”

“Sure, that’s fair.”

“Hopefully this teacher is better at Social Studies anyways, maybe I can catch up…”

“Mr. Hill is real good at it!”

Allison sighed in relief and looked up at the board. “He does have a lot of stuff up there for notes. My last teacher just said it all really fast and I couldn’t write fast enough!”

“Yeah, he writes a bunch of notes and keeps them up there all day.”

“That’s nice.” She slowly started copying what was on the board as Mr. Hill started the lesson. She was listening carefully but still got confused as she tried to follow along with his words and the notes at the same time.

Scott, who had been helping Isaac, turned to look at her, “You doing okay?”

“I’m just not sure if… this date goes with this note,” she pointed, “Or if he’s talking about this now…” she finished, pointing to a different section.

“I’m not sure either… I’ll ask.” He raised his hand.

“Yes Scott?”

“We’re confused ‘bout something.”

Mr. Hill walked over to their table, “Which part?”

Allison pointed to her notes “What is this date for?”

“Oh, we’re still talking about the first topic. I know I mentioned that name but we haven’t changed topics yet.”

“Oh okay, thank you!” She erased it and wrote it in the right spot. She turned to Scott as Mr. Hill went back to the front of the room, “Thanks for asking… I don’t wanna be the new kid that asks a lot of questions…”

“You’re welcome.”

They continued to take notes, Scott taking notes while also helping Isaac and Allison. Allison and Isaac smiled at each other, both glad that they weren’t the only ones having trouble. She was glad that Stiles had told her about Scott otherwise she’d be feeling pretty lost right now.

*Argent Home*

Stiles was still in the office, watching Victoria work. “If you’re serious about looking into my mom’s murder… it’s going to be hard. They closed it but they got the wrong guy! And she isn’t the ghost you’re looking for anyways.” He sighed in defeat as she didn’t react at all, “You can’t hear me… we can’t solve a crime with this obstacle.” He looked around the room for something to get her attention with, settling on a pencil. “I’ll just… write a note! You can read even if you can’t hear me.”

Victoria was on the phone with a client as Stiles worked on lifting the pencil. It took a lot of effort and he was only able to hold it for a moment before it slipped through his fingers and rolled across the desk. That got her attention though and she turned and looked at him. Stiles was surprised, just staring back; then he waved hopefully, “Can you see me?”

Victoria shook her head, deciding not to even worry about the pencil; she had work to do.

“That would be a no… you answered my question without even hearing me.” He didn’t give up though, the pencil was resting on a stack of papers and he decided that he’d try just rubbing it along the paper to write. He managed to make a very wobbly ‘h’ without her looking over. “Whoo! I’m getting somewhere!” The pencil rolled off the desk now that he wasn’t pushing it anymore.

Victoria sighed to herself, trying not to think about the strangeness of the day so far. She bent down and picked up the pencil.

Stiles grunted and did his best to push the paper closer to her computer, “Please notice…”

She didn’t, she went right back to the computer; she had done a quick search about the house and was debating if she should read the articles she’d found.

“Dammit!” He chewed on his lip, apparently one small letter on a piece of paper wasn’t enough. “Okay, you can’t see me but Allison can… maybe you have to really believe? Um…” Stiles looked around for a moment, “I hope you don’t get mad… and I’ll try not to break anything.” He went over to the picture frame hanging on the wall and carefully tilted it.

Victoria didn’t even look up.

Stiles tilted the second picture then realized he needed something bigger; he went out into the hallway. “I’ll just… tilt all of your pictures. You can’t ignore me then!” Slowly, carefully, he went along the hallway and skewed every frame to the left or right.

It took awhile and Victoria hadn’t moved by the time he came back into the office. He stood there and waited. Eventually she looked up and noticed the first two frames. Stiles held his breath as she got up and fixed them, but she didn’t say anything. “Oh come on! You gotta say something about the rest of them right? There’s like 10 more in the hallway. That’s weird and spooky!”

Victoria’s phone alarm chirped, signaling that it was time to go pick up her daughter. She hurried into the hall to grab her purse and paused, noticing the pictures. “How…?”

He bounced from foot to foot, excited that maybe his trick had worked. He watched as she slowly walked down the hall and looked at each picture. He moved to follow her and bumped into the small table with the mail. “Oops!”

“What?!” she spun around quickly, searching the hallway.

Stiles concentrated on being solid, “Please, please see me… or at least believe… please.”

But Victoria shook her head and grabbed her purse, “I don’t have time for this…” Then she was gone.

“Seriously?” he gaped. Unbelievable! All his hard work and she just walked away. Stiles went back into the office and decided to finish his original note. It took him awhile but he managed to put an ‘i’ and spell out ‘hi’ and then he carefully positioned it over Victoria’s keyboard. “There, can’t ignore that!” he exclaimed, breathing hard. “Wow, I’m tired? That was hard…”

Satisfied though, he wandered back down the hallway, mumbling to himself. “Still can’t believe she just left…” Stiles sighed and looked around, “I don’t wanna be rude… I guess I’ll put it all back. Maybe the note will be enough.”

It wasn’t long before Victoria came home with Allison. “Go get started on your homework,” she told her daughter.

Allison nods, “Yes Mom.” She hurried up to her room, Stiles following her. Neither of them noticed her staring at the straightened pictures in confusion.

Stiles ‘sat’ on the bed while Allison pulled out her homework. “How was school today?”

“It was great! I got to work with Scott and Isaac in class and play with Lydia at recess and I didn’t see Jackson all day!”

“Oh nice! And Mr. Hill is a good teacher?” Not every student learned the same so hopefully he hadn’t been wrong. Scott loved him though.

“Yeah, we were doing Social Studies and I was confused, and he came over and helped.”

Stiles nodded sympathetically, “Yeah, Social Studies can be a lot of stuff to pay attention to. But I’m not surprised he came over to help, he’s one of those teachers where no question is a stupid question.”

“I was worried he was gonna be like my last teacher… she didn’t explain it that good.”

“I don’t like teachers like that, students are supposed to learn.”

Allison brightened suddenly, “I helped Isaac with his writing in after care too! He seemed kinda nervous about asking for help but we had fun working together.”

Stiles smiled at her, “Aw, you’re such a nice person.”

Victoria interrupted as she called up to her daughter, “Are you playing or doing homework? I hear a lot of chatter.”

“Homework, Stiles wanted to know about my day!” she responded; hopefully she didn’t get in trouble for yelling…

“Okay, just as long as you’re working too!” Victoria wondered about Stiles again, and the picture frames… she hadn’t imagined that right? They were all crooked when she left the house and now they were straight again. She pushed it to the back of her mind as she went to get started on dinner.

Back upstairs, Stiles was assuring Allison that she could ask him if she had questions about her homework. She was only in the 2nd grade, she couldn’t be working on anything too hard.

-later-

Chris came home and hung his coat on the rack by the door, calling out a greeting.

Victoria left the kitchen to give him a hug, “How was work?”

“Busy. How was work for you?”

“Not bad, time passed quickly enough. I’m glad I set an alarm to remind me to pick up Allison.”

Chris nodded, happy to hear that she didn’t have a stressful day. “Did you want me to do some research on the house before dinner?” It had been on his mind for most of the day…

“Well, we know-” Victoria started to say and then lowered her voice, “Who died here…. And judging by the sheriff’s voice, I doubt it was peaceful. I started to look into it but never got anywhere, other stuff came up. I’m sure you’re eager to figure this out though, so go ahead and see what you can find. Hopefully it won’t be awful news.”

“Yea, the sooner we find out, the better. Maybe I’m over-thinking this ‘Stiles’ thing but I want to be sure we don’t have some vengeful spirit lingering in the house.” Chris grabbed his own laptop from the office and went into the living room to do some research. There was still a little bit of time before dinner, surely he’d find something.


	3. Chapter 3

*Friday, Argent house*

Victoria set the car keys on the hook and leaned against the counter, remembering what Chris had told her. Apparently, Mrs. Stilinski hadn’t passed away from some sickness, she’d been murdered. Chris had found the newspaper article, it had been a home invasion gone wrong. It was no wonder that the sheriff hadn’t wanted to keep living in the same house, or talk about it over the phone. She hadn’t had time to think about it last night after putting Allison to bed… now that she was home alone, she couldn’t help but think about it. But if she didn’t snap out of it, she’d end up scaring herself. So Victoria grabbed a glass of water and then went up to the office, she had work to concentrate on anyways. Victoria went up to her office, sat down at her computer, and then saw a piece of paper on her keyboard. “What’s this?”

Stiles stood in the corner of the room, watching- she’d seen the paper he had put there! He hoped his note would be enough to make her believe that there was a ghost in the house, “’Cause you’re out of luck lady… I used up a lot of concentration just trying to touch things… don’t know if I can make myself solid enough for you to see…”

Victoria startled at the voice, someone else was in the house? “Hello?” She looked around the room, trying to locate the source of the sound.

Stiles blinked, surprised, “Hello? Did, did you hear me?”

“Are you still there?” The voice was faint, coming in and out… Victoria wasn’t sure she’d actually heard anything.

“It’s me Stiles, it’s been me the whole time!” Stiles ran his hands through his hair, he couldn’t believe she could hear him now! “Oh em gee, it’s working?”

Victoria tilted her head, confused, had she heard correctly? “Stiles…?” Wasn’t Stiles the name of Allison’s imaginary friend?

“Yes, yes, Stiles, me, I’m Stiles!”

“You’re… real?!”

“I’m a ghost but yeah, I’m real.”

“Why are you here..?” She continued to look around the room, looking for Stiles. He wasn’t the ghost she was expecting… Had someone else died in the house besides Claudia?!

“That’s a long story… I’m, uh, the son, Stiles Stilinski.”

“Stilinski? Your dad said his wife died in the house, nothing about a son though.”

He nodded his head even though she couldn’t see him. “I died at the hospital, but I didn’t want to leave them alone so… I became a ghost. I guess that’s how it works. My mom isn’t a ghost, she moved on.” He paused for a moment, mumbling to himself, “Or she’s haunting the asshole that killed her maybe…”

Victoria nodded before registering what Stiles had said, “So you know that she died, were you here- did you see it?”

Stiles sighed audibly, “Yea, I was already a ghost in the house… I saw it all…”

Victoria was shocked to hear him admit it, she hadn’t truly been expecting that. She didn’t want to, but she knew she needed to ask, “Did you get a good look, do you know who did it?”

He shut his eyes against the memory, “It was… a man but he wasn’t a man at all I don’t think. He could do things that normal people can’t do! But I’ve never seen him before so I have no idea who he is.”

“What things did he do?” Victoria asked… He couldn’t mean another ghost right? What other kinds of non-humans were there?!

“I, he just like… I don’t know how to describe it really but… he shot these clear crystals around the room… attacked her with them.” His voice shook and he took a moment to collect himself. “He also took my mom’s necklace! Like, he Magneto’d it from across the room- it was so surreal! Saying it… out loud makes it all sound stupid… but I swear I know what I saw and I’m telling you, something wasn’t right!”

She frowned for a moment, automatically visualizing the helmeted mutant as the one in the living room. The killer could move objects, and do other stuff too? “Alright, that definitely sounds non-human, I agree with you there. But you don’t know what he might’ve been?”

“No… no clue.”

“I’m guessing the police never picked up on these… abilities of his?”

“Nope, it wasn’t really something he left traces of in the house. I mean, it’s not like I didn’t try to explain it to them.”

Again, she heard the hurt in his voice. “Does… your dad know you’re here?” Victoria asked softly.

Stiles shrugged, “I’m not sure if he believes… I showed him ghost stuff but he just always seemed to think it was the wind or something. He never saw me or heard me either. I think he was just too sad, didn’t want to believe that it might be me, or even Mom after her death. Like I said, I tried to communicate to him but he just ignored me…”

Victoria shook her head and sat at her desk. She was actually having a conversation with a ghost… about his mother’s murder. This wasn’t how she wanted to start her day but it wasn’t like she could just forget about it now. She wanted to do something about the sadness in his voice, “Do you want to move on? Is that something I can help you do?”

“I want to find that man… he was never arrested.” He wasn’t sure if that would help him ‘move on’ but he wanted justice for his mom.

She frowned, “Someone was arrested though, Chris and I talked about that last night.”

Stiles shook his head, “That wasn’t the man that killed her! I don’t… I have no idea why they arrested him but he wasn’t here that night. I saw the killer’s face so clearly- they made a mistake.”

“If they arrested the wrong man, is there anything I can do to help?” Victoria was determined to help, she fully believed now and could hear Stiles clearly, could hear how young he was… she couldn’t just ignore him.

“I can’t ask you to help, it’s dangerous… like I said, he isn’t really a man at all… I’d already be working on it but I can’t leave the house to go look for him…” Stiles was frustrated, how could he bring the man to justice without being able to go look for him?

“I want to help.”

Stiles fidgeted, he really couldn’t ask her to do this… “But you have a family…”

She shook her head, confused, “Yes, I have a family but that doesn’t change the fact that I want to help you.”

“Even though he’s really dangerous?”

“Even though he’s really dangerous, I want to help,” she stated firmly.

Stiles shook his head and mumbled, “Your husband doesn’t even like the idea of me… he thinks that I might hurt Allison- which I won’t, I promise!”

Victoria was quick to reassure him, smiling, “I know you won’t. He’s just worried, but I’ll talk to him about you. Now, how can I help?”

“I’m… not sure, I’ve never even gotten this far with anyone else. Can you find articles on other guys that have been accused of murder that claim they were set up? That can give us potential other victims maybe. I know the report said that they found the shoes in the guy’s house… so the real killer has to wear a size 10 ½ too… that might be a clue.”

“I’ll see what I can find. Do you happen to remember… the day that this happened?” Victoria hated to ask but she couldn’t remember and didn’t want to pull up the article if Stiles was in the room. “We should probably search by date to find the most relevant cases.”

“Yeah, I remember seeing the story in the paper…it’s etched in my head like everything else about that night. She was murdered late in the evening, March 13, 2013. But the guy could’ve hurt someone else before Mom… or targeted her for a reason…” Stiles groaned hopelessly, “We have nowhere to start at all!”

Victoria was scrolling through articles, “We’ll just start with cases in the same month as your mom’s murder and go from there.”

“Right. I… thank you.” Stiles tried to relax, she seemed confident that they’d find something.

“You’re welcome.” There were a few minutes of silence as she searched but finally she pointed to the screen. “I found a few people, did you want to see if any of these are the real killer, or maybe people you know?”

Stiles perked up, “That’s smart, maybe I do know some of these other people. I didn’t even think about that, I was more focused on how they didn’t catch the right guy that killed Mom.” He leaned in to look at the pictures, remembering not to get too close like with the phone yesterday. He slowly looked over the pictures, calling out ‘next’ each time he was ready for her to scroll. “No… don’t know any of them. None of the guys arrested were the same guy, and I don’t know the victims either.”

“Well, it was worth a shot- even if they hadn’t gotten him for your mom’s murder, it would’ve been nice if maybe he’d been arrested for something else. I’ll keep looking.”

“You know, I’m starting to wonder if they were all framed too. If they were, that means he wasn’t after my mom specifically. And that guy they arrested had never even met my mom- how is he, the killer, picking these people?!” Stiles was starting to feel hopeless again, there were so many unknowns and they had no way to get information… unless… “Um, would it be okay if…”

“If…?”

Stiles chose his words carefully, “I don’t know if you’d want to- and it’s okay if not! I was just thinking… maybe you could… go talk to him? The guy they think killed my Mom. He’s allowed to have visitors as long as you schedule it ahead of time. Maybe he can tell you why he was targeted, if he pissed someone off or something. That will be easier than trying to steal the police files.”

“I’d be willing to-” she started to say before doing a double-take, “Steal police files??”

“Well, as a civilian you can’t request them, and we need to get details about what happened. I doubt all the victims are ghosts that you can talk to, and you can’t read the police files… so talking to him is really the only way to get details.”

“You’re right about that, I’m not stealing police files.”

Stiles started to laugh, “I got pretty good at it back in the day… I hung out at the station a lot and got bored. I guess it wasn’t really stealing since I never took them out of the station but, you know.”

“So, that leaves talking with him,” Victoria agreed. “I’ll start there.”

“Awesome! And we’re fairly certain that he didn’t kill anyone so it shouldn’t be a big risk for you to go see him. Right?” Stiles really didn’t want Victoria to do anything dangerous.

“Right.”

“Okay, cool, we have a starting point,” Stiles cheered, then paused, realizing something. “I shouldn’t get my hopes up, this will probably take awhile, you have a job and stuff. I’m not that great at waiting either… But, I’m glad you can hear me all of a sudden! I finally found someone that can help me.”

Victoria nodded, “I can’t imagine how tough it must have been for you, dealing with this knowledge all by yourself.” There was silence as she continued to search. “This man here has the most in common with your mom’s case. He didn’t know the victim but there were stolen items in his home, he claims he was framed since he never met the victim, and the only physical evidence were size 10 ½ shoeprints at the scene. I can talk to him too.”

Stiles perked up, “Oooo, yeah, he sounds like a good person to visit! If there are two people to talk to then we can compare stories, maybe even figure out why they were framed, or if they pissed off the same guy. I can give you a description of him before you go visit them, maybe they’ll recall seeing someone that looks like the real killer.”

“I was thinking the same thing, I’ll make an appointment to see both of them.”

Stiles nodded gratefully, “Thank you!”

“You’re welcome.” Victoria looked up the number for the prisons, making herself a note to call and set up a visit. She was happy she’d figured out the mystery about Stiles already, Chris would be happy! Well, he’d be happy about the fact he was right, she wasn’t really sure how enthused he’d feel about her sudden involvement in a murder investigation. Especially since it was already solved, according to the authorities. Victoria was certain that if she explained it all very carefully, he’d understand. And it meant that she’d be getting out of the house too! It was nice being around for Allison but there were still times that she got bored. Not only would she be helping a ghost, she’d also be finding a killer- that was important.


	4. Chapter 4

*Saturday*

Allison was sitting at the table talking to Stiles about going over to Scott’s house, he was telling Allison about what he and Scott used to do.

“Scott and I used to play with his toy cars a lot. I’m not sure if they’re still his favorite though… He also likes to play pretend pirates but not everyone likes it so he might be too nervous to ask to play.”

“I’ve never played pirates before, is it hard?”

“Not at all! Not a lot of people like pirates though, they prefer other types of pretend games, so Scott won’t want to ask you to play. But you can bring it up, it’ll make his day!”

Allison ate her breakfast in silence, thinking about what Stiles had told her about Scott. She liked playing with cars and she’d never played that kind of pretend game before, but she’d be willing to try it. He also told her about Melissa, Scott’s mom and that she was super nice!

*Scott’s House*

Victoria pulled up to the house, and turned in her seat to face Allison. “Remember the rules: be polite, don’t make a mess, and call if you need me. You remember what our phone number is, right?”

Allison nodded and repeated the number back to her mom. As Victoria unbuckled her seatbelt, Allison spoke up from her seat, “Mooooom, I’m a big girl!” She didn’t need to be walked to the front door!

Victoria sighed, “Alright, have a good time, I’ll be by later to pick you up.”

Allison climbed out of the car and made her way to the front door, ringing the doorbell.

Melissa answered the door, calling out to Scott, “Allison’s here.” She turned back to Allison, smiling warmly. “Come in, Scott will be right down.”

Allison followed Melissa into the house, going to the living room to wait for Scott. Scott came down a few minutes later, buzzing with excitement. “Allison, you’re here! Are you thirsty or hungry?”

Allison shook her head, “No, I’m okay right now, thanks.”

“Oh, okay, what do you want to play? I don’t have dolls or anything…”

“Do you have cars? I have some that I play with all the time.”

Scott’s face lit up, she liked to play with cars? “Yeah, I have a bunch in my room!” Scott pulled Allison upstairs and got out his toy cars while Allison sat on his bed. He pulled out all but one (a blue Jeep) and put them on the floor.

“Wow, you have a lot! What about that one?” Allison pointed to the car that was still left in the basket, curious why Scott left that one in there.

“Oh, that was Stiles’s favorite car…” Scott looked down, not wanting to cry in front of Allison.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know! I like this one though”, Allison said as she picked up a red car.

Scott and Allison played with the cars for a few hours before Isaac came into the room. He saw Allison and waved, excited to see her again.

Scott jumped up to give Isaac a hug, “I didn’t know you were coming over!”

Isaac hugged back, “My mom and dad wanted to go out and Camden is with his friends, so they asked your mom if I could stay here while they’re out.”

“Cool! You can play games with us,” Scott said, pulling Isaac further into the bedroom.

Allison spoke up from where she sat, “We’ve been playing with cars for a while, wanna play pirates? There are three of us now.”

“Really, you wanna play pirates? People usually like cowboys better.” Scott was surprised, he didn’t meet a lot of people that liked to play pirates.

Allison smiled, “Yeah, I’ve never played before, I wanna learn how!”

Scott, Allison and Isaac played pirates the rest of the afternoon. Just as Isaac ‘stabbed’ Allison, Melissa was at the door saying both Victoria and Isaac’s parents were here to pick them up. The three of them groaned, they wanted to keep playing! Scott said goodbye to Allison and Isaac, walking them to the front of the house where the adults were talking. Allison and Isaac said goodbye to Scott and thanked Melissa for having them over, then they went to their respective cars to go home.

*Later*

Allison was lying on her bed talking to Stiles who was in her desk chair. “Scott and I played with his cars and then Isaac came over and we played pirates! I didn’t know how to play, but Scott taught me how and it was a lot of fun!”

“That’s amazing, I’m glad you had fun!”

“Also! Scott still has your favorite car and doesn’t let anyone play with it.”

Stiles perked up at that. “He does- the Jeep?”

“Yea, when we were taking out all the cars, he left that one in the basket and when I asked about it he said it was your favorite and kept it in there. So it’s special to him.”

Stiles felt touched, Scott was such a precious boy but he had no idea that he’d made that big of an impact on his life!

The two of them continued talking until it was time for Allison to go to sleep. She got under the covers and turned on her side, facing Stiles, “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” Stiles waited until Allison had fallen asleep before leaving her room and floating through the house.

*Sunday*

Allison woke up early, excited. Today was family day- first family day since moving! She wasn’t even sure what they’d be doing, but it was going to be fun no matter what.

Victoria poked her head in the room, “Good morning, I’m making pancakes, did you want anything in yours?”

“Do we still have blueberries?”

“Yeah, we still have some.” Victoria headed downstairs while Allison got dressed.

Allison got dressed and went downstairs to sit, she was excited to tell Stiles about today!

“Stiles, today is family day!!”

“Really? What do you do for family day?”

Allison told Stiles some of the things that they would do for family day: they’d go to the park, to the local pool, into town, the zoo, or see a movie. When Victoria called Allison to the table for breakfast, Stiles was surprised to see a plate next to Allison’s. He knew Allison hadn’t put it there and Victoria knew he couldn’t eat, so why would she put a plate there? He was touched though, that was thoughtful of her. Chris came down and kissed Allison’s hair before taking a seat. Stiles sat next to Allison, listening to the conversation about the day.

 

“What would you like to do today?” Victoria asked. They were still new to town, so Allison might decide she didn’t want to go out anywhere but do something at home.

Allison thought for a minute, “Can we see a movie?”

Chris spoke up from his seat, “Of course. I know that Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is playing, Larry from work took his daughter to see it.”

Allison smiled, “Really?? Can we see that?” Allison looked at both of her parents hopefully, she loved the book version of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs so she was excited to see the movie version.

Victoria nodded, “We can go after breakfast.”

Stiles was happy for Allison, she’d be spending time with her family! But that meant he’d be all alone. He would be okay though, they would only be gone a few hours and family time was important. It wasn’t like he hadn’t been alone in the house before.

*Later*

Chris, Victoria and Allison were walking to the movie theater. It wasn’t far from their house and the exercise was good.

“I wonder what the grandpa will sound like! He sounds nice and friendly in my head.” Allison said as she skipped, holding Chris’s hand.

Chris smiled down at Allison, “I’m sure he’ll sound nice and friendly in the movie too.”

“I wonder why we didn’t see the grandpa or grandkids in any of the trailers,” Allison wondered.

“Maybe they wanted you to see what the town was like,” Victoria replied.

As they reached the theater, Allison stood by her mom while Chris got the tickets. Inside, she got a small bag of popcorn and a water before following her parents to the correct theater. Allison chose seats in the middle (those were the best in her opinion).

*After the movie*

As they exited the theater, Allison was happy, the movie had been great! “There wasn’t a grandpa or grandkids, but I liked Flint and Sam! I also liked how Flint made a machine to make food fall from the sky, that was so cool!”

Victoria smiled, happy that Allison had enjoyed the movie, “What did you want to do now?”

“Can we go to the park?” Allison asked.

“Yeah, it’s a nice day, the fresh air will be nice. We should go home and get the car, and a ball too,” Chris replied, turning back towards their home.

“Oh, that’s a good idea,” Victoria said.

After their quick trip home, they drove to the park. Allison was holding the ball and asked her parents if they wanted to kick the ball with her. The three of them passed the ball around for a few hours before Allison was ready to head home.

“Today was fun,” Allison said, wiping the sweat from her face with a towel her mom had brought.

“Today was a fun day, I’m glad we went out,” Victoria said, glad she was able to get out of the house for a day.

*Argent House*

Stiles was ‘sitting’ on the couch, bored out of his mind. He had already explored the entire house twice and now had nothing to do. It wasn’t like he could just go outside. He knew that spending the day with her family was important for Allison, but he hated being alone. During the week when Allison was at school, at least Victoria was home and now she could talk to him too! Stiles sighed, perking up when he heard the three of them come inside.

“Get changed into clean clothes sweetie,” Victoria called as she headed to the kitchen.

“Okay!” Allison changed into clothes and threw her dirty ones in her hamper, calling out, “Stiles? We’re home!”

Stiles floated to Allison’s room, going to her desk chair.

“We went to go see a movie! We saw Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, it was really good!” Allison exclaimed.

“Cool! What else did you do?” Stiles was interested to know what else Allison and her family did. No way the movie took all day, unless Allison begged them to see it twice.

“We went to the park too! And we kicked our soccer ball around for a while!”

“So what was the movie about?” Stiles questioned. He missed out on all sorts of movies now that he was a ghost. Not even the internet to look up trailers.

“It was about this guy who makes a machine that makes food fall from the sky! And a weather girl helps him when the food starts getting huge and people have to leave town! It’s different from the book, but I liked it just as much!” Allison went over to her bookshelf and pulled Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs off and brought it to Stiles so he could see it.

*Meanwhile*

Chris joined Victoria in the kitchen, helping her prepare dinner. He resumed their unfinished conversation from the other day. “I don’t like you getting involved in a murder investigation, you could get hurt.”

Victoria paused and turned to him, “Stiles needs help though, I can’t just ignore him.”

“But this is a murder investigation we’re talking about! Besides, you said the authorities arrested the killer.”

“The person they arrested was framed, he didn’t kill Stiles’s mother.”

Chris looked at Victoria with wide eyes, “And how do you know that??”

“Because Stiles told me that the man they arrested wasn’t the same one he saw kill his mother,” Victoria explained, going back to chopping.

Chris stood there, shocked. “He… he saw her get killed…?

Victoria sighed, “Yes, he saw it and he told me the person who killed her was not the person the police arrested. I want to help Stiles find out who killed her.

Chris ran his hand down his face, “If you’re set on helping him, fine. But please be careful.

Victoria smiled, “Of course I’ll be careful.” She was only going to go talk to a couple of guys, there would be guards around. Totally safe.

By the time dinner was done, Allison was so hungry after being extra active that she quickly ate everything on her plate and even asked for seconds! Then it was time for a bath and bed. Playing with Scott and Isaac had been fun yesterday, but Allison told Stiles that today had been the most fun day in Beacon Hills so far!


	5. Chapter 5

*Wednesday* 

Allison walked into Mr. Hill’s class and took her seat across from Isaac. “Hey Isaac,” she smiled.

 

“Hi…” Isaac said quietly. Allison was a good friend now, but he wasn’t used to Scott not being at school with him.

 

Allison looked to the empty seat next to Isaac, “Where’s Scott?”

 

“He has a doctors appointment, he had to go to the hospital last night so his mom probably wanted him to have a check up today.”

Allison gasped, “Is he okay??” She hoped Scott wasn’t super sick.

Isaac nodded, “Yeah, he just had problems with his asthma again. Ethan was babysitting me last night and Scott’s mom called to tell him she wouldn’t be bringing Scott over.”

“Oh, okay. I hope he gets better soon!”

“Yeah, me too.” 

The bell rang and Mr. Hill passed out a worksheet. Isaac turned to Scott for help only to see his chair was empty. This happened a few times before Allison spoke up, “Do you need help?” 

“Yeah… Scott’s usually here to help me…”

“I can help you.”

“Really?”

 

“Yeah, I don’t mind.”

Allison and Isaac worked together until it was time for recess. Isaac had become more comfortable around just Allison as the morning went on so he invited her to play a game with him.

*Prison*

 

Victoria got out of her car and headed inside. After she signed in, she emptied out her pockets and passed through the metal detector before being led over to the non-contact area.

 

Kevin Harrison was led over, picking up the phone after he was seated. “C-can you really… help? You weren’t lying right, just to try and come visit me or something?”

 

“I’m going to do my best. I wasn’t lying just to come and visit.” 

Kevin slowly nodded, “So um…. How exactly can I help you?”

“Can you give me details about your case?” 

“Umm, let’s see… Obviously you know when it happened… stuff like how I was arrested you mean?”

Victoria nodded, “What evidence was used against you?”

“Well, first they tracked me down because I was their cable guy- I had to go fix one of the cable boxes… like a week before  _it_  happened. I guess that made me a suspect… When they were at the house, one of them happened to spot a small speck of blood on my porch steps. And that was all it took, they grabbed a sample, hauled me away and then got a court order to look through my place. That’s when they found a pair of my shoes- old shoes! I hadn’t worn them in  _months_ , they were in the back of the closet! But they had her blood on them, somehow… and her necklace was in my sock drawer- how did it get there? I swear I didn’t take it. No one believed me…”

 

“Is there anyone who would have wanted to frame you for this?”

Kevin sighed, “Not that I can think of… my lawyer asked me the same thing but… I haven’t really fought with anyone- like okay, maybe a customer or two about the price of a bill but that’s nothing serious. No one would frame me for that would they??”

“I don’t think so.”

 

“That’s all I can think of… I don’t go to bars and get drunk so can’t be over a drunken fight… and I don’t bet on sports, don’t owe anyone money.”

 

“What about a man who is six feet with brown hair? Really dark brown eyes. I know that’s really vague but-”

 

“Wait!” Kevin shouted, clearing his throat so the guards wouldn’t get mad at him for yelling. He lowered his voice to a normal tone again, “Does this guy also have like…. A white patch in his hair, right about here?” Kevin pointed to his hairline where he remembered the guy having white hair.

 

Victoria nodded, “He does.”

Kevin shook his head in disbelief, “I have no idea why just his hair color and height reminded me but… just the thought of a tall guy with brown hair and eyes triggered a memory… he was… pretty intense.”

“What was the interaction you had with him like?”

 

“Uh well… it’s just about as stupid as someone framing me over the cost of their cable bill… no… it’s more ridiculous… Um… I’m telling the truth, I swear. It was maybe 3 days before um, the murder… I was at Keene’s Bakery and I was in a hurry, it was busy- early morning rush. The line was all over the place so I just kinda… fumbled around with everyone else. When it was my turn to order, I got a chocolate and peanut butter muffin, one of their specialties, and then I paid and left. And not a minute later, that guy you described chases me out into the parking lot and he’s pissed, like…. I mean, pissed! His eyes were on fire! Like literally, I swear, on fire! He wasn’t yelling or anything, but he was menacing, talking about how first I cut him in line and then I have the audacity to steal the last peanut butter muffin from him… he  _swore_  I’d regret it… That sounds so ridiculous- no one would frame me over a muffin, no matter how delicious. I had completely forgotten about him, that’s how stupid it all was… sure he seemed very mad but…” Kevin lowered his voice, “It was a muffin…”

“Did you ever see him again after that?”

Kevin opened his mouth to answer then paused, she wasn’t going to question his story? He just told her that he was framed over a muffin! “Um, no… never again. Wait though, I forgot to tell you, I brought it up with my lawyer but he said it couldn’t really prove anything but um, about 2 nights after the murder and a day or so before the cops came to my door, my back door was unlocked. It wasn’t open or anything, and  _nothing_  had been stolen, I searched and double checked everything. Do you think he planted the evidence??”

 

“It’s possible, but I can’t be certain.”

“I  _never_  would’ve guessed it was the muffin dude. Did he really… kill that woman? And then plant the evidence in my house? How did you find out about him??”

Victoria hesitated, “I don’t think I should say just yet.”

Kevin nodded his head, “Right, right, that makes sense. But you think he also framed other people? You’re following some kind of lead right?”

“Maybe, I’m still piecing everything together.”

 

“I hope you’re right, and I hope that you can  _prove_  it if so… because even if you are right, if you can’t prove it… I’ll still be here.”

 

“I can’t guarantee anything, but I’m going to try my best to get to the bottom of this.”

“Thank you, so much, for even trying. Everyone seemed so certain it was me, like they just wanted to hurry and convict someone because it was Sheriff Stilinski’s wife. And if he’s framed others, you wouldn’t just be helping me.”

 

“You’re welcome.” Victoria hung up the phone and raised her hand to be escorted out. As she walked out to her car, she went over everything Kevin had told her. She couldn’t wait to tell Stiles what she had found out!

 

-Later-

Victoria arrived home, going inside. Before she could even put her purse down, Stiles was already coming downstairs.

 

“You’re back already? How did it go?” 

“It went well, I learned a lot.”

“Do you think we might have a shot at finding the real killer? Stiles asked.

Victoria opened her mouth to answer when Chris walked into the room.

 

“Glad you made it home safe,” Chris said as he greeted her.

Victoria smiled, “Did you think I wouldn’t?”

Chris smiled back, “Scary things happen in prisons… it wasn’t so much that I expected something to happen, just glad that nothing did.”

Stiles waved his hands at Chris, impatient, “She was about to tell me news. I’m sure she can handle herself in a prison.”

Victoria grinned, replying to Stiles original question, “Yes, I think so.”

Stiles smiled at her, they were getting somewhere!

Chris raised a brow, but didn’t say anything, instead asking his own question, “So, how did it go?”

“It went well, he was able to tell me a lot about what happened before the incident.”

 

“Oh? That’s great! I was worried that he wouldn’t be able to tell us much.” As Stiles floated back upstairs he called out, “Let’s piece everything together!”

 

Victoria nodded and started walking upstairs. Chris followed her, “At least it wasn’t a wasted trip.”

Victoria walked into her office and saw papers all over the floor.

Stiles looked at the mess. “Umm… sorry… I was trying to like, lay them out so I could look at all of them and organize them like my dad’s crimeboards but um… Sorry.”

 

Chris looked around with an eyebrow raised, “What happened in here?”

“That’s okay.” Victoria picked up all the papers and laid them out on the desk.

“Thank you.”

“Stiles I’m guessing?” Chris asked. There was no other way the papers could’ve been so messed up.

 

Victoria nodded, “He was trying to lay everything out.”

Chris nodded, he was still getting used to Stiles. “Alright so-”

At the same time, Stiles spoke, “What was the guy like?”

 

“He was nice, never got defensive if I asked him something.”

 

Stiles nodded, “Not to be mean but… was he kinda a pushover maybe? Maybe that’s why he was framed?”

 

While Stiles and Victoria were talking, Chris decided to look over all of the papers. He couldn’t follow the one-sided conversation so he didn’t want to interrupt.

“I’m not sure, I didn’t think to focus on that.”

 

“Yeah… I didn’t think to mention it at all, what his personality might be like. I was more curious about if he knew the killer and could explain why he was picked…”

Chris looked up from the papers, “So um… what’s the verdict here exactly?” What did you learn?”

“He was their cable guy, he came out here about a week before it happened. After that he had no interactions with them.”

Stiles nodded, “I thought I had seen him before! I wasn’t really paying attention when he came to the house, but yeah, I remember him!”

“And the cops questioned him because of the cable stuff?”

Stiles nodded again, “Well yeah, that’s standard procedure. What did they find, that’s the important question.”

Victoria nodded to Chris. “He was questioned because he had been there so recently. Then the cops found blood on his porch and in the house along with Mrs. Stilinski’s necklace.”

 

“Wow… that’s scary… that someone could be framed so easily…” Chris murmured.

 

“Did he notice any signs of a break-in? Obviously someone planted the necklace, but was he that good at covering his tracks?” Stiles wondered.

 

“He said the day before the police came by, his back door had been unlocked, but nothing was stolen or looked out of place.”

“Hmm, so the real killer is pretty sneaky but not perfect.”

Chris spoke at the same time, “He didn’t notice the blood??”

“The blood on the porch was very small and the blood in the house was on a pair of shoes he had in the hall closet.”

“Ah well… I guess that makes sense.”

“My turn to ask a question! Did he not notice his shoes were missing?” Stiles asked.

“It was a pair he hadn’t worn for months, they were in the back of the closet.”

 

“Oh! That’s, wait, how could the monster guy have known that???”

 

Chris sighed, “This is sounding more and more complicated…”

“I think I underestimated the killer…”

Victoria looked up at Stiles “What do you mean?”

Stiles frowned, “I thought he just picked someone that was convenient… But if he knew what shoes wouldn’t be missed, that means he was in the guys house more than once. Did he have any idea on why he was framed? Maybe that will help us piece it together.”

“This is confusing, what is Stiles saying?”

“Sorry, Stiles was just saying he underestimated the killer because he thought the man that was framed was just picked out of convenience.”

 

Chris nodded, “Gotcha.” He thought about the case as he looked over the papers some more.

 

“We do know it wasn’t completely random though. Mr. Harrison recalled interacting with the killer at Keene’s Bakery.”

 

Stiles perked up at the mention of the bakery. “Keene’s Bakery?”

 

Victoria nodded, “Yeah, that’s the bakery he mentioned.”

 

“What happened there? I don’t remember hearing about anything big in the news?”

 

“It was early in the morning and things were hectic, Kevin ordered a muffin. As he was walking back to his car, the killer confronted him, angry that he had ordered the last muffin.”

 

“…Seriously??” Stiles was shocked to hear that it was over a muffin!

 

Victoria nodded, “I’m serious...”

Chris looked up from the papers, “Stiles is right, this guy is scary… it says here that our framed guy was home alone all night when the murder happened and was off from work the next day… how did the real killer get inside to plant the evidence without him finding out??”

“I’m not sure…” Victoria sighed, rubbing her temples, this was more complicated than she thought.

Stiles looks over the papers, shocked. “A muffin… that’s… who is this guy?!”

“A very skilled person. I bet he left the backdoor unlocked on purpose, so the poor guy would know he was framed but in such a way that the police would have no reason to believe him… So what should we do?” Victoria asked.

“Obviously we have to stop him! He’s done this to at least 2 people…” Stiles said.

At the same time, Chris said, “We proceed carefully, very carefully… maybe even alert the police.”

 

“Alerting the police won’t help, as far as they know, they’ve arrested the real killer.”

Chris gestured to the papers laying in front of them. “But we’re starting to gather evidence that they’ve been framed…”

Stiles raised a brow. “Um, none that the police would believe… you’re getting information from a ghost…”

 

“He’s right. This might be evidence, but the police won’t believe it if we tell them our main source of information was a ghost.”

 

Chris sighed and looked over the papers again. As he was doing that, Stiles was mumbling to himself about the new information.

 

Victoria leaned back in her desk chair, “What should we do since we can’t go to the police about this?”

Stiles’s arms flailed, “Hunt him down of course!” After glancing at Chris he added, “But… carefully. Very carefully. He’s dangerous… We start by learning more about him. If we learn what he is, we can learn how to fight him.”

 

Chris shook his head, still unable to hear Stiles’s comments, “I have no idea…”

“How do we learn more about him?”

 

Stiles spoke up, “We find him and watch him… we have his description… and I doubt he left town, but Beacon Hills is pretty big…”

 

“We want to learn more about this dangerous man?” Chris asked, hearing Victoria’s question at least.

“Learning more about him would help, but we aren’t cops, we don’t know how to watch someone without them noticing.”

 

“It’s usually really easy. Not too many people watch their surroundings. I mean… do you? You totally should by the way. And if he’s confident that no one can hurt him, he has no reason to really pay attention.”

“I almost always pay attention to my surroundings. How can we find him though?”

“I’m still working on that part… we’ve got time though. You still have one more guy to visit, that might help us. We know a bakery he likes, that might lead us somewhere… hopefully.”

Victoria sighed, “I think we should wait until I talk to the second guy, we aren’t getting anywhere right now.”

“I’ll think about it more and come up with a more solid plan…” It would be so much easier if he could leave the house!

 

Chris looked between Victoria and the spot where he thought Stiles was, “So we’re waiting now?”

Victoria nodded, “For now, until I can talk to the second guy and see what he knows.”

 

“It’s a start though.”

 

“This is getting complicated.” Chris said as he ran his hands through his hair.

 

Victoria looked to Stiles, “We’ll figure this out.”

Stiles smiled. “Thank you… for sticking with it, I know this is getting dangerous, you really don’t have to… Your husband is obviously having second thoughts.”

 

“I told you, I’d help you solve this. I’m not backing out.”

“But that was before we found out how smart this guy was…”

 

“I know, and I still want to help you.”

“I really do appreciate it, like, more than you could ever know.”

*School, After Care*

Allison sat at a table, frowning. Why hadn’t her mom come to get her, or her dad? They were never this late…

 

Scott came over by her, “What’s wrong?”

“My mom or dad still hasn’t picked me up yet and almost all the kids are gone.”

 

“Yeah… normally your mom isn’t late… but no one at the office has called you in, so that’s good.”

Allison shrugged, “Yeah, but my mom is never late… and if she can’t pick me up my dad will.”

Scott frowned, “We can ask the office to call? I don’t wanna leave you here alone and it’s almost time for my mom to be here.”

 

“I guess so…” As Allison got up from the table, she noticed Scott’s mom. “Your mom’s here, I can ask by myself.”

“I’ll go with you, it’s okay. I’ll just tell Mommy that we’re waiting for your Mommy too.” Scott grabbed her hand and started to walk to the car.

Allison followed Scott. “It’s okay Scott, I can call my mom, you shouldn’t keep your mom waiting.

 

He ignored her, “Mommy, Allison’s mom isn’t here yet, can we go to the office to call her mom?”

“I can give you a ride home Allison,” Melissa said.

“But… Mommy might be on the way and then she’d get here and I’m  _not_  here…”

“I’ll call her. If she’s on the way, we’ll just wait until she gets here and if not, I can bring you home.”

 

Allison shifted her weight, “Are you sure? I’m sure you have stuff to do…”

 

“I’m sure.” Melissa took her phone out and dialed Victoria’s number.

Scott smiled at Allison, reassuring her that everything was fine.

Back at the house, Victoria was brought out of her thoughts when her phone started ringing. “Hello?”

“Hi, this is Melissa McCall, I just arrived to pick up Scott and he and Allison both came out to the car wanting to know if they could call you.”

Victoria gasped, “Oh my gosh, what time is it?? Is it already that late?! Is Allison okay?”

“It’s almost 5. Allison is fine. If you aren’t on the way here, I can bring her home.”

“Oh, I feel so awful… something came up and I lost track of time… please tell her I’m sorry! Um, it would probably be faster for you to drop her off, if it’s not any trouble of course.” 

“Of course it isn’t any trouble, we’ll be there shortly.” Melissa hung up the phone and turned to Scott and Allison.

“Is everything okay?” Allison wondered.

“Everything is fine, your mom just lost track of time, she said something came up. She wanted me to tell you she was sorry though. I’ll bring you home.”

Allison nodded. “As long as everything is okay. Thank you very much.”

“You’re welcome.”

 

Scott and Allison climbed in the car and buckled up. After they were buckled, Melissa started towards Allison’s house.

*Few Minutes Later*

Melissa pulled up outside of Allison’s home. 

“Thank you again for the ride. I’ll see you tomorrow Scott!” Allison waved to Scott and Melissa then headed into the house.

 

On the way home, Scott spoke up from his seat, “That’s Stiles’s house, I didn’t know Allison lived there!”

Melissa smiled to herself, “It’s a small world, huh?”

Scott nodded, “Yeah!”

 

*Argent House*

Victoria hugged Allison, “I’m so sorry I forgot you, I just lost track of time.”

 

Allison hugged back, “It’s okay Mom, I know you wouldn’t forget me on purpose and Miss McCall said everything was okay.”

Stiles came downstairs, “Don’t be mad at your mom, she was helping me!” Stiles felt horrible that Victoria had forgotten Allison because she was helping him, he didn’t want Allison to be mad at her!

“It’s okay, I’m not mad.”

Victoria stood up, “I’m going to get started on dinner, go hang out until then.”

Allison nodded and headed up to her room, Stiles behind her. He wanted to know all about her day and tell her what they learned! He needed a break after all the crime talk.


End file.
